By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Coordinator

Tim Gibson Middle School in Sebela has been a blessing for the people of Sebela. However, the 7th and 8th grade students have not been in school for a while, due to a teachers’ strike this spring and then a school closure as a result of the pandemic. Although the 9th graders are back in school studying for their graduation exam, the 7th and 8th students are still waiting on the government to allow them to get back to school too. The students love each other because they feel they are all joined together in one school. They are looking forward to going back to school and being with their teachers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic school closure, Mali Rising Foundation is helping these students with workbooks. These take-home workbooks will allow the students to keep up with their French, English, and other subjects from home during the crisis. Sixty-two percent of the students in 7th and 8th grades were able to work on Mali Rising’s workbooks and return them. Almost all the students have been excited to do the work and they were encouraged by Mali Rising by providing every student who completed their workbook with soap to take home to their family. The three best scorers were also honored with sugar and rice in addition to their soap.

The students have all been grateful to Mali Rising Foundation for the gifts, especially the soap because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Mali and around the world. These students are worried about their future in terms of education since they have been off school for several long months. With Mali Rising Foundation, they feel like they are given back hope through the workbook project.

One student, Safiatou, is one of the 8th graders and she told me she is very dedicated to being among the 3 best scorers next time. She told me she feels so jealous of the best scorers because of their sugar and rice!

Safiatou said that she already learned things like vocabulary, adjectives etc. from the workbooks. She thinks she could learn more than more thanks to this great idea of Mali Rising Foundation since she is not going to school now. In addition, Safiatou thinks that washing hands with soap will save lives during the pandemic because she will share her soap with the rest of her families. She also mentioned that their parents will like the gifts so much and will be proud of them and thankful to Mali Rising Foundation. She said she will work harder next time and wants Mali Rising to keep on helping all of the students with workbooks.

Read more about the workbook strategy.